* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In the remote mountainous areas of Northwest Lao, newborns are six times less likely to die than the rest of the country. This did not occur by chance; rather, it is proof that health workers can make all the difference in the fight against maternal and child mortality.
Ahead of the UN General Assembly on women and child health on September 24th, this mountainous corner, known as Sayaboury, should be a shining example to world leaders around the world.
Having set the Herculean tasks of the Millennium Development Goals and with the 2015 deadline fast approaching, world leaders seated at the General Assembly Hall should look to learn from places that have actually succeeded.
Situated between the Mekong River to the east and Thailand to the west, Sayaboury Province is home to many communities speaking different ethnic languages. Often there is limited road access and villagers seeking medical care often have to walk long distances to access health services.
Despite these challenges, the province has seen a dramatic decrease in infant and maternal mortally. Infant mortality is now 75% lower than the MDG 4 targets while maternal mortality is over 50% below the MDG 5 target.
How has this sleepy corner of South-East Asia delivered on Millennium Goals 4 and 5? More importantly, why can’t it be done elsewhere?
In Sayaboury, volunteer health workers and traditional birth attendants have been at the frontline of the fight against maternal and child mortality. This means that more mothers receive prenatal, antenatal and postnatal care and more children are given the life-saving vaccinations they need, resulting in better survival rates. Indeed, this is true the world over – frontline health workers are key in saving lives.
The communities already recognise this importance. They support health workers in a myriad of ways – from building them a house to allocating an annual rice allowance – whatever the community can do to ensure the health workers can continue their life saving work. Think about what we could achieve if each politician in New York committed to doing whatever they could to ensure health workers are able continue their lifesaving work. How many children and how many mothers could we save?
The fact is that without investment in frontline health workers the world over the Millennium Development Goals will be a distant mirage. There is a shortage of 3.5 million health workers, including doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers in the world’s 49 poorest countries.
It is not just about numbers. Health workers need to be trained to ensure that they are equipped with the right skillset to diagnose and treat common illnesses and problems among children and mothers. Equipment has to be purchased and clinics built in even the most remote places so that the poorest can receive the help they need.
In Sayaboury , Save the Children trains and mentors community health workers. The children’s charity builds clinics and for remote isolated communities where this is not possible ensure that mobile clinics can bring health services to the people. These things take time. Save the Children has been implementing its primary healthcare work in Sayaboury for over 20 years.
The years of investment have paid off. With such stunning results, the primary healthcare problem has been replicated and improved in other provinces in Lao. In just three years, Nan District in Luang Prabang Province achieved MDG targets 4 & 5.
In countries such as Lao, where domestic revenue – and by extension potential tax revenue – is low, support from international donors becomes all the more crucial to address the critical issue of health workers.
The children of Sayaboury and Luang Prabang are fortunate, but for the 7.6 million children that die each year from preventable causes around the world, time is running out.
